London: Parks

Hal called London a "City of Parks," and it's not the first time that phrase has been used. Anna Quindlen remarks in Imagined London:

"London is ... a city of parks, gardens, and squares, so that much more of it is green and verdant than visitors initially expect. A third of London, according to one estimate, is either grass or gardens."

And elsewhere in the book:

"The string of parks—Hyde, Green, St. James's—make a sort of central hub that enables newcomers to find their way around some of the most important landmarks and and some of the prettiest neighborhoods."

On Hal's first full day visiting me we made this grand park circuit, adding Hampstead Heath to the "string of parks." That was the most parks I visited in a single day during my London stay, but I saw all of them again, plus a few others, as well as various park-like squares, during my stay.

I've divided up my collection of park photos into the following categories, each with their own page:

Hyde Park. The closest to me, and also one of the city's largest, so it's not surprising I took the most photos there
Green Park/St. James's Park. These connected greenspaces flow so naturally into one another it seemed logical to group their photos together
Hampstead Heath. The largest park I visited, and one of my favorites
Brompton Cemetery. This seems like a park, and its website is even administered by royalparks.org, so I classified it as such here
Other parks. These include Battersea Park, Bishop's Park in Fulham, and Regent's Park, as well as various squares which count as small parks

You can read see all my blog posts tagged "Parks" here and I will link to specific posts about specific parks on the appropriate pages. There are also many more parks photos in these Flickr sets: Central London parks • Hampstead Heath • other London parks, etc. Of course, we saw great parks in many of the other places we visited, especially in Potsdam and Edinburgh, not to mention the national park in Wales, Brecon Beacons.

If you want a geographical orientation for the London parks, take a look at this map:

View a larger version of this map here.

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